ST. LEON-ROT, Germany, 22 May 2004 — Despite suffering a tight hamstring, Alex Cejka took an early three-shot lead in the Tournament Players Championship of Europe on Friday to boost his hopes of a place in the European Ryder Cup team. Cejka says he will play at least the minimum 11 European Tour-counting tournaments that are mandatory to qualify for the match in September and he took full advantage of only his fourth of these with a second-round eight-under-par 64.
His two eagles and five birdies helped him to an 11-under-par 133 aggregate, three strokes better than Britain’s David Howell, one of the overnight leaders. Darren Clarke of Britain is a further stroke back, while defending champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland is five off the pace with another German Marcel Siem.
Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer was the last German to win the TPC of Europe when he won in Hamburg nine years ago.
With 500,000 Ryder Cup points available to the winner, Cejka can rise dramatically in the race for a team place and justify his decision to play the mandatory events in Europe.
“My priority is to secure my card in America but when that’s done I’m coming back to Europe to play more events,” he said.
